Gurugram: A late Wednesday night reshuffle of 15 IAS officers in Haryana saw one of the most prominent faces in Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini’s office quietly shown the door, a 2000-batch officer tucked away in an obscure department, and a Gurugram deputy commissioner making a swift entry into the corridors of power.
The order, signed by Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi and bearing the date 8 April, arrives days after Haryana wrote to the Centre seeking a CBI probe into an alleged Rs 590-crore bank fraud in which the alleged role of some IAS officers came to light during an ongoing Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau investigation.
The most striking transfer is that of Saket Kumar, the 2005-batch officer who had been holding an unusually wide portfolio as Additional Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister — effectively one of the most powerful positions available to an officer of his seniority.
Kumar simultaneously held charge of Commissioner and Secretary in the Development and Panchayats Department, the Cooperation Department, and was Managing Director of Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited. All four of those roles have now been distributed among others.
Kumar’s new assignment: Commissioner and Secretary in the Archives Department, an innocuous posting in the grammar of bureaucratic transfers.
Equally revealing is what has happened to Pankaj Agarwal. The 2000-batch officer was transferred on 19 March to the plum charge of Principal Secretary, Irrigation and Water Resources Department, along with advisor to the Haryana Saraswati Heritage Board and Principal Secretary in the Mines and Geology Department.
That reshuffle came a mere three days after the 16 March Rajya Sabha elections, in which the Congress candidate Karamveer Bauddh narrowly defeated BJP-backed independent Satish Nandal, a result that surprised many given the numbers.
The Congress had formally written to the Governor naming Agarwal, who served as Returning Officer, as a “BJP agent” and questioning his conduct during the poll.
In Wednesday’s order, Agarwal has been transferred as Principal Secretary in the Archives Department, and, relieved of the Irrigation and Saraswati Heritage charges that had just been conferred on him weeks ago.
Vineet Garg, a 1991-batch officer who chaired the Haryana State Pollution Control Board, has been moved to Printing and Stationery as Additional Chief Secretary, a department much lower in the bureaucratic pecking order.
His charge at the Pollution Control Board goes to J. Ganesan (2006 batch), who already holds several portfolios, including Food and Civil Supplies, and Public Health Engineering.
Ajay Kumar, the 2013-batch officer serving as Deputy Commissioner, Gurugram, has been elevated to Deputy Principal Secretary-II to the Chief Minister. This newly created post brings him directly into the Chief Minister’s Office.
Replacing him in Gurugram is Uttam Singh (2015 batch), pulled in from Karnal, while Anand Kumar Sharma (2019 batch) moves from Rohtak to fill Uttam Singh’s slot in Karnal.
The reshuffle also moves Atul Kumar (2007 batch), the Transport Commissioner, to an additional charge as Commissioner and Secretary, Finance Department (Haryana-I), while Dusmanta Kumar Behera (2007 batch) moves from the Labour Department to Revenue and Disaster Management. Mani Ram Sharma (2009 batch) goes from Registrar, Cooperative Societies to Secretary, Health Department.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
Also Read: Chandigarh admin funds also hit? Haryana Vigilance chief’s revelation in IDFC First Bank fraud